Mustang Hills

Fri. 23 December:  Mustang Hills

There is something which draws me to the Elbow Valley winter gate, even though the slog up the road beyond the gate up to Rainy Summit is far from spectacular.

So today I found myself in front of the gate, struggling to open the car door against the strong westerly wind.  I had brought my waxless skis, but the road was too icy, so I left them behind in favour of MICROspikes, with my snowshoes strapped to my backpack.  The wind was so strong I was glad of the MICROspikes to give me forward traction on the icy road surface.  Little whirlwinds of snow raced across the road ahead of me.  But overall it was not as wild as on my recent trip in the Highwood, and higher up it eased off quite a bit.

My plan today was to explore the Mustang Hills by snowshoe.  Last June there was an article in the Kananaskis Trails website about these hills, and so I was interested in finding out if they would make a good snowshoe trip.  Last year I had reached the top of the first of the three Mustang peaks, but it was forested and had no view and so I turned around, a little disappointed.

Today it was cloudless, and the sun was rising slowly in a bright blue sky.  As I reached Rainy Pass and the spectacular mountains came into view, I knew what it was about this road which kept bringing me back.    

On the north side of the Pass, I looked for the shortcut route up to Powderface Ridge.  I had half considered exploring that trail today, but it was long and high, and the wind was still strong up there.  So I stuck to my plan and turned up the hillside to the south of the Pass to reach the old access road to the Elbow Valley. I had travelled this route before, because otherwise it would be hard to find for someone not sure where it was.  Here I put on my snow shoes as the snow was about a foot deep.

And so I wandered across the three Mustang Hills summits, each one providing better views than the last.  My route was made simple thanks to some very good, and frequent, blaze marks cut into the tree trunks.  It is impossible to follow a summer trail when there is snow on the ground, without good blazing – and this was the best I have ever seen. 

Halfway up the gentle slopes to the second hilltop, someone had built a very nice inukshuk with arms outstretched.  The most prominent peak to the west was Banded Peak (9,626 ft) and of course the high plateau of Forgetmenot Mountain.  To the south I could see the meadows of Quirk Creek stretching away towards Volcano Gorge.  I continued across the third summit and down into the Elbow Valley.  The blazing became harder to follow further down, but by then I was close enough to the valley floor that I was in no danger of getting stuck in thick forest.

Once safely down off the hillsides I turned left to follow the wide Elbow valley, meandering at will through the trees as I plodded through crusty snow, making a nice trail with my snowshoes.  As the cliffs closed in on my left, the Elbow river swung in from the right and entered the pretty gorge.  There was just enough room for me to squeeze along the foot of the cliffs without getting my feet wet in the river.  This gorge was longer and more twisty than I had remembered from my trip last year, but the sun shone down into the narrow valley, lighting up the snow and the rocks beside the river.

Finally I climbed back onto the closed highway for the short journey back to the car.  Stopping in the Beaver Flat campsite at a handy picnic table, I enjoyed a leisurely picnic in the sunshine.  Here the wind started to pick up again, and by the time I reached the gate, it was blowing even more strongly than this morning.  Two hikers were just setting out up the road, battling the strong winds.  I was glad to climb into the car and escape the wild blast.

This had been a good trip and I was not surprised to have seen nobody all day.  Even in summer not many people wander into that section of the Elbow Valley.  And although I did see signs of hoof prints, there were no mustangs to be seen up there either.  But they are up there somewhere, hiding in a sheltered spot, I hope.  

Statistics
Mustang Hills
Fri. 23 December
Total Dist.	9 km (hike)   +    5 km (‘shoe) = 14 km
Height Gain	1,017 ft.
Max. Elev.	6,020 ft.
Time	5 hrs. 18 mins.

Other Stats.
Start hike:       8.36 am Rainy Pass:     9.47 am Summit 1:     10.34 am Summit 2:     10.59 am Summit 3:     11.10 am Elbow V.:      11.49 am Road:              1.20 pm Ret. to Car:     1.54 pm	Temp: +3 C.  Strong W winds made it feel like minus 3 C. Cloudless day, clear visibility, strong W. Chinook winds